Customer Spotlight:
Dionne Campbell
On the importance of taking website security seriously
Owner of DeeHive Design and Marketing Agency, Dionne Campbell has turned her jack-of-all-trades professional history into a thriving digital agency that covers the gamut of digital marketing services that help her clients succeed.
DeeHive Design is a women-owned digital marketing agency that offers business clients:
- Web design and development
- Graphic design
- Branding
- Web hosting
- Marketing automation management
- Virtual administrative assistance
Their mission is to give their clients more freedom to do what they do best: Run their businesses.
And with Dionne’s wide array of creative and professional knowledge, she’s able to deliver for her clients beyond their expectations.
The Birth of DeeHive Design
As she explains, “I used to be a jack-of-all-trades. I did quite a bit of everything. Through that, I spent a lot of time trying to find myself and figure out exactly what I wanted to do professionally. But it was difficult for me to choose because I do so many things well. Not to toot my own horn.”
But the time she spent has paid off in spades since launching DeeHive Designs with a team of freelancers.
Dionne goes on to say, “Eventually, I thought to myself, ‘Why not just take all my gifts, talents, and abilities and throw them all into a melting pot?’ I realized that they all fit together, because they were mostly artsy skills such as graphic design and web design. Web design is what I really liked to do the most.”
Through her years of experience, she also learned that she tends to get bored with doing the same tasks, and also enjoyed managing people and making large projects come together.
And this was the point where she finally decided to launch her own woman-owned business.
“I knew a bunch of different types of freelancers who were all doing their own thing. And we all came together and decided to work together for my agency.”
“I knew a bunch of different types of freelancers who were all doing their own thing. And we all came together and decided to work together for my agency.”
A Fully Women-Owned Marketing Agency
Running a women-owned agency is very important to Dionne. As she explains, although women-owned businesses don’t traditionally get the recognition they deserve, things are starting to change.
And that’s a positive step in the right direction, she says.
“There are women all over the place nowadays, trying to figure out exactly what they want to do. Things have changed in regards to the roles we have. Most women don’t stay home and take care of the kids anymore. We have a lot of other things to participate in, including our professional lives.”
One of the biggest perks Dionne has experienced in running a women-owned business is the relationships that have formed between herself and the other women she works with.
“This has allowed me to build a community and more relationships with more women in my life; especially the ones that are in this business. And that means a lot to me.”
Life Before DeeHive
Dionne is of Jamaican descent, although she was born and raised in Birmingham, England. While in her teens, her family decided to come to the U.S.
Initially, they moved to New York to settle there. But when Dionne was 16, they moved to Florida where she completed her education and has lived ever since.
After a brief stint with some college courses, Dionne decided to enter the professional world and start gaining real-life experience.
“I started out doing customer service. That became quite mundane to me after a while. Eventually I went into banking, where I was a fraud investigator. I really enjoyed doing that because it allowed me to exercise my analytical skills.”
She even went into massage therapy at one point in her life, where she learned a lot about how to help other people and how to be of service to them.
And she says that those lessons have helped her immensely with her professional growth that lead to BeeHive Designs.
“I started out doing customer service. That became quite mundane to me after a while. “
The Beginnings of a Career Using WordPress
Eventually, Dionne’s professional pursuits began to become a bit too mundane for her liking. She began to really focus on the parts of her career that she enjoyed the most, and was best at, so that she could focus her energy on the areas it was best spent.
And that’s when she began to learn WordPress.
“I began to look inside of myself at that point in my life. I didn’t want to choose a path that I wasn’t going to be happy with, or something that I knew I could do just for the purposes of making money.”
So she began to consider what she really wanted to do moving forward.
“I always loved designing things. And I’ve always been really artsy ever since I was young. I used to win trophies in school and stuff.”
“I always loved designing things. And I’ve always been really artsy ever since I was young. I used to win trophies in school for my art.”
It was at this point that she decided she wanted to do something creative for a career. She was already running a simple blog at the time, but describes it as, “really, really boring at first.”
And this was the perfect opportunity to learn how to properly set up a website: Something that was very interesting to Dionne due to the creative aspect.
“I got into WordPress web design by doing a self-paced course I purchased from Skillcrush University called a Skill Quest. And it was there that I learned WordPress.”
It was shortly after learning WordPress that her business was born.
On Taking Website Security Seriously
There was a time when Dionne didn’t put a lot of weight into WordPress website security. In fact, while running her blog, which was the first WordPress site she built, she neglected to run any type of security plugin to protect the site from hacks or malicious attacks.
And she paid the price.
“The site was just out there for the wolves. And I had a strong password. But, the hackers got their messages to get onto my site. They got in there for sure. Then I noticed that I went to my site one day, and people were reporting that every time they landed on my site, it was redirected to try to sell them something else.”
It took this experience to fully open Dionne’s eyes to the importance of WordPress website security. And ever since discovering iThemes Security on a YouTube video, Dionne no longer worries about the website security of her site or her client’s sites.
She even plans on using her YouTube channel to teach others about the importance of using iThemes Security.
“I want to talk about these products and services to help other people so they don’t need to go through the same nightmare I went through (with the hack).”
“Just knowing that iThemes Security was created by the best of the best in WordPress security gives me the peace of mind that I need to know I’ve done everything I can to keep security tight.”
Dionne’s WordPress Toolset
The WordPress tools and services that Dionne uses for every new client or personal project are powerful and streamlined.
Of course, she uses the iThemes Security plugin for the protection of every WordPress site she builds and maintains.
As she explains, “iThemes Security has had a huge impact on my mental health. As a webmaster, I’m the one responsible for the security of my clients’ websites. Just knowing that this plugin was created by the best of the best in WordPress Security gives me the peace of mind that I’ve done everything I can to keep security tight.”
But beyond that, she enjoys using RankMath SEO for all of her SEO needs.
“They take the guesswork out of the major task of maintaining a website’s search viability.”
For WordPress site design, she goes with Elementor for every single one of her projects.
Goals For the Future
Dionne knows what it takes to be a jack-of-all-trades when running a business. That’s why she focuses so much on relieving her clients of having to do everything themselves. This allows them to focus more energy on what they do best: Grow their businesses.
And seeing her clients succeed is one of the most rewarding parts of running DeeHive Designs.
Within the next five years, Dionne would like to focus on more long-term relationship building with the companies of the products she uses that help her clients.
She believes that her YouTube channel is a great way to do this. But there is one obstacle:
“I need to get my team over their fear of being on camera so we can really get the YouTube channel off the ground and running.”
She also gains a lot of satisfaction out of the freedom her business gives her to do what she loves doing, all while continuing to learn new skills and perfect her craft.
With Dionne’s creativity, skills, and determination, no doubt her new endeavors will find success.
Learn more about Dionne and DeeHive Design
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